Mark Allen's Tips for the Off-season

Heed this advice from the six-time IRONMAN World Champion (and top coach) to set yourself up for a stellar season.

by Allison Pattillo

This article is presented by Ventum Racing.

The concepts of rest and offseason mean different things to different athletes, with many of us being guilty of growing restless after two or three weeks of downtime and diving back into structured training. According to coach and six-time IRONMAN World Champion Mark Allen, that’s a big mistake.

"The knee jerk reaction is to finish an IRONMAN and then want to maintain your huge amount of fitness," Allen says. "The truth of the matter is that you have to decondition if you plan to take it to another level the following season."

Allen encourages his clients to take two months or so to recharge, regenerate and rebuild reserves. By cutting back on total volume, frequency, and intensity of workouts during the offseason, athletes have the opportunity to truly recover both mentally and physically.

Scheduling downtime can be a challenge, though, especially when athletes begin to feel almost recovered from a challenging training and racing block and are antsy to move. '"You’ll feel pretty good after two or three weeks, but you won’t have that last bit of recovery and reserves that make the difference between a good season and a great season," according to Allen.

The key for laying a base for a successful next season is finding the balance between giving your body the time it needs to recover and maintaining motivation to move just enough to maintain muscle memory and base fitness.

Allen has five tips to keep you going through your down time.

Focus on the "little" things

When in the midst of training for a goal race, the last thing any athlete wants to do is tweak technique or bike position. Allen says the offseason is the perfect time to make small changes–to technique, form, cadence, bike position, and even equipment–without impacting key training time.

Exercise don’t train

Down time is not when you want to go hard and focus on training improvements. The purpose is to move because you feel like exercising, not because you consider it structured training or expect to make gains.

Allen admits this is hard for a lot of triathletes, especially when asking them to get motivated for a one-hour easy ride, when they are used to three- or four-hour rides. It’s about recharging your mind, avoiding the stress of anaerobic exercise when you can, and moving to maintain muscle coordination patterns.

Allen structures offseason maintenance training to give his athletes a break and enable them to try new things. If you always ride an aero-frame, try riding a road or mountain bike, or doing something besides swim, bike, run. Winter is also a common time to bring workouts inside. Allen is a big fan of Zwift for quick workouts and says his Ventum aero-frame works perfectly with his trainer. Mixing it up is good for your mind and body.

Give yourself a break

This is a time to let go of numbers, splits, and times. "If you have a workout on your schedule and you can’t motivate yourself to do it, skip it," Allen says. If you’re truly in a mental blah state, aim for moving every third day. "I like clients to get their heart rate up and steady for 20, 30, or 40 minutes to an hour for three times a week, to maintain the integrity of everything in your body. In the off season, 30 minutes of spinning on Zwift is a good workout."

Try a new-to-you route

During training, people tend to do the same rides over and over. You’re removing an unknown from your training, it makes sense. This is your time to go on an adventure and tackle that ride you’ve been saving for "someday." If it means you spend a day on the weekend driving someplace, go for it. Without structured training, you have the time.

Do something crazy

Everything you do doesn’t have to be short and easy. If there’s a random ride, run, or adventure you want to do with friends, do it. You can shock your system without taxing it; the weekly hard efforts are what wear you down. When Allen lived in San Diego, his crazy off-season ride was the Hangover 100, a January first sufferfest with friends. "I never did it in any kind of decent shape because it always fell during my off-season," he explains. "One time I was barely able to maintain 13 miles-per-hour on a flat, but it wasn’t about performance, it was about having a good time." This is your time to do really fun things with a group just because you can.